Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2014 May;18(5):328-30.
doi: 10.4103/0972-5229.132508.

Glyphosate surfactant herbicide poisoning and management

Kranthi Mahendrakar  1 , Pradeep M Venkategowda  1 , S Manimala Rao  1 , Dnyaneshwar P Mutkule  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Glyphosate surfactant herbicide poisoning and management

Kranthi Mahendrakar et al. Indian J Crit Care Med. 2014 May.

Abstract

Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide in agriculture, forestry, industrial weed control and aquatic environments. Glyphosate potential as herbicide was first reported in 1971. It is a non-selective herbicide. It can cause a wide range of clinical manifestations in human beings like skin and throat irritation to hypotension, oliguria and death. We are reporting a case of a 35-year-old male patient who was admitted to our tertiary care hospital following intentional ingestion of around 200 ml of herbicide containing glyphosate. Initially, gastric lavage done and the patient was managed with intubation and mechanical ventilation, noradrenaline and vasopressin infusion, continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration and intravenous (IV) lipid emulsion (20% intralipid 100 ml), patient was successfully treated and discharged home. This case report emphasizes on timely systemic supportive measure as a sole method of treatment since this poison has no known specific antidote and the use of IV lipid emulsion for a successful outcome.

Keywords: Gastric lavage; glyphosate; intravenous fat emulsion; poisoning; surfactant herbicide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

References

    1. Giesey JP, Dobson S, Solomon KR. Ecotoxicological risk assessment for roundup herbicide. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol. 2000;167:35–120.
    1. Bates N, Campbell A. Glyphosate. In: Campbell A, Campbell A, editors. Handbook of Poisoning in Dogs and Cat. 1st ed. England: Blackwell Science Ltd; 2000. pp. 135–8.
    1. Cheng JC, Cheng MC. Glyphosate intoxication in 28 patients. Ann Emerg Med. 1995;26:721.
    1. Sawada Y, Nagai Y, Ueyama M, Yamamoto I. Probable toxicity of surface-active agent in commercial herbicide containing glyphosate. Lancet. 1988;1:299. - PubMed
    1. Lee CH, Shih CP, Hsu KH, Hung DZ, Lin CC. The early prognostic factors of glyphosate-surfactant intoxication. Am J Emerg Med. 2008;26:275–81. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources